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This is Volume One of The Army Air Forces in World War II, titled Plans and Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942, edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate. The University of Chicago Press first published it in 1948, and the Office of Air Force History reprinted it in 1983. The front matter explains how the AAF historical program was set up during the war. The index covers Pacific, Atlantic and European operations, and nothing in the text concerns unidentified aerial phenomena.
“Pacific Ocean”16 pages
T H E A R M Y A I R F O R C E S I N W O R L D W A R I f In order to carry out its own assigned responsibilities in connection with the training, the Ferrying Command established a control office at MacDill Field in January in charge of Capt. James C. Jensen, a veteran four-engine pilot, H e was assisted by specialists in the various crew positions, that is, pilots, co-pilots, navigators, radio operators, and flight engineers, all of whom had had trans-Atlantic flying experi- ence with the B-24 shuttle services to Great Britain and Cairo. The first step was to establish a ferrying school for the Project X crews, with the Ferrying Command specialists and certain others serving as instructors. Instruction was given in navigation, radio, aircraft main- tenance, gunnery, and four-engine transition, the latter including, be- cause of the inexperience of the crews, some instruction in night landings and take-offs. Another important aspect of the training pro- gram was the briefing of the crews on weather, communications, land- ing fields, housing, messing, and health conditions along the route. The briefing of crews for overseas flight would develop into one of the more fundamental and specialized functions of ATC, but the pro- cedures at this initial stage were rudimentary indeed by comparison with the system that was later set up at aerial ports of embarkation and a t overseas stations around the world. In addition to the informa- tion that could be provided out of the personal experience of a few officers, the bomber crews were supplied with maps, charts, and other material on route conditions procured from a variety of sources by the Ferrying Command’s intelligence section. According to officers con- nected with the project, some 1 7 0 maps and charts and approximately 50 books and folders, comprising a mass of undigested, unwieldy in- formation which served to confuse rather than inform, were furnished each crew. Later, as the briefing technique improved, route informa- tion was boiled down to the essentials and compressed into well-or- ganized route guide^.^' Training and briefing the crews and putting the aircraft in shape for the overseas journey were only the first steps in the complex task of moving Project X to the Far East. The most difficult part of the job began after the bombers were on their way. It would have been less difficult had more time been allowed for training prior to de- parture, but some compromise had to be made between the urgent need for the planes in the Pacific and the unpreparedness of the crews. The majority of the pilots had been trained on single-engine or twin- engine aircraft and because of the inadequate number of planes had 3 34
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